Mulling spice
MUL-ing spys
Also called mulling spices, cider spice.
Warm, sweet, citrusy, gently pungent.
Mulling spice is a whole-spice mixture sold for hot cider and hot wine, steeped in the pot and lifted out before it is poured. Line up three blends from established merchants and only cinnamon, allspice, and clove appear in all of them. Past those three the split is not random: the two sold plainly as mulling spices both close with cardamom and mace, while the cider-branded mix drops that pair for orange peel and ginger, which pulls it brighter and fruitier. The cinnamon is not always the Ceylon bark either, and one label says so on its face by naming China cinnamon, which is cassia. What every version shares is a warm sweet body with enough clove behind it to still be there after an hour in hot liquid.
Similar but different
Easy to mix up, different enough that swapping changes the dish.
- Pumpkin spicewarm, sweet, cozy, baking-spiced.
- Pickling spicewarm, pungent, sweetly aromatic, sharp.
What it pairs with
Goes wrong with: delicate wines you would rather taste on their own, anything you plan to serve cold.
Common in American cooking.
Whole vs ground
Whole, always. The blends are sold as cracked bark and whole buds, and the instructions say to hold them in a muslin bag or a tea ball, steep, and lift the whole thing back out. Nothing in this mix is meant to end up in the cup.
How to handle it
Tie the spices in a muslin bag or load them into a tea ball, drop it into the cider or the wine as it heats, and pull it out when the drink tastes the way you want it. Time in the pot is the dial you have, so taste as you go rather than adding more spice at the start.
Storage
Airtight, dark, and cool. Whole bark and buds hold their punch far longer than anything ground, but heat and humidity strip them fast, which makes the cupboard above the stove the worst shelf in the kitchen. Buy what you will actually drink in one season.
Buying note
Read the ingredient statement, because the front label is the same word on every jar and the mixes behind it are not. For the classic steeping profile, look for cardamom and mace on the list. For something rounder against apple cider, look for orange peel and ginger instead. Whole cracked bark and intact buds are worth more than a jar that has gone to dust in the bottom.
What's in it
- Cinnamon·in all three blends checked; one label names China cinnamon, which is cassia
- Allspice·warm sweetness, also in all three
- Clove·the pungent depth that survives the heat, also in all three
- Green cardamom·floral lift, in the two plain mulling blends and absent from the cider mix
- Mace·the lace around nutmeg, in the same two
- Ginger·clean heat, in the cider-style mix only, alongside orange peel
Classic dishes
mulled wine, mulled cider, wassail, glogg.
Out of mulling spice? Substitutes
No substitute is exact. These are the closest by flavor behavior, with the ratio to start from and how the result will differ.
| Use instead | Ratio | How it differs |
|---|---|---|
| a cinnamon stick, a few whole cloves, and four or five allspice berries | per bottle of wine or quart of cider | covers the three spices every blend shares, misses the cardamom lift |
| that trio plus a strip of orange peel and a coin of fresh ginger | to taste | lands close to the cider-style blends, brighter and sweeter than the plain mulling mixes |
Mulling is one of the oldest things anyone has done to wine. The first record of wine being spiced and heated is in Plautus' comedy Curculio, written in the second century BC.
Common questions
- What does mulling spice taste like?
- Mulling spice is warm, sweet, citrusy, gently pungent. Its overall intensity is medium.
- What can I use instead of mulling spice?
- The closest swaps are a cinnamon stick, a few whole cloves, and four or five allspice berries (per bottle of wine or quart of cider, covers the three spices every blend shares, misses the cardamom lift); that trio plus a strip of orange peel and a coin of fresh ginger (to taste, lands close to the cider-style blends, brighter and sweeter than the plain mulling mixes). No substitute is exact, so taste and adjust.
- Should I buy mulling spice whole or ground?
- Whole, always. The blends are sold as cracked bark and whole buds, and the instructions say to hold them in a muslin bag or a tea ball, steep, and lift the whole thing back out. Nothing in this mix is meant to end up in the cup.
- How do you store mulling spice?
- Airtight, dark, and cool. Whole bark and buds hold their punch far longer than anything ground, but heat and humidity strip them fast, which makes the cupboard above the stove the worst shelf in the kitchen. Buy what you will actually drink in one season.
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